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Pilot Killed In Small Plane Crash In Erie

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ERIE, Colo. (CBS4)- A small plane crashed just before 10 a.m. Sunday near the Erie Municipal Airport north of Erie.

Ib Hansen, the 65-year-old pilot, was killed. There were no passengers on board.

Hansen’s experimental aircraft crashed north of Arapahoe Road and east of County Line Road in a private field in Erie. The plane is believed to have taken off from the airport at about 9:50 a.m. and crashed just minutes after takeoff.

(credit: Ed Wolf)

“Witnesses said the plane took off, traveled in the air, made a left turn, and then dove into the ground,” said Lee Mathis with the Erie Police Department.

Authorities said the pilot had been building the plane for a man from Texas. That man was flying right behind the experimental aircraft when the plane went down.

Investigators said the plane and a small area around it burned after the crash.

“I don’t know whether it was mechanical or what the problem was, we just know the plane crashed,” said Mathis.

What caused the plane to crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. NTSB officials said they will examine log books the pilot kept while he was building the plane to see if those records contain any clues as to what may have happened before the crash on Sunday.